Hello AFA Supporters!
Looking forward to seeing you all at the upcoming AFA event!
SAVE our ANCIENT FORESTS and BC FORESTRY JOBS! Pre-Election RALLY and INFO NIGHT!
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
7-9 pm
Alix Goolden Hall, 907 Pandora Ave. (by Quadra St), Victoria
Facebook event page (invite friends!)
YOUR ATTENDANCE is needed to SEND A STRONG MESSAGE to BC’s politicians one month before the BC election that it’s their MORAL OBLIGATION to commit to saving our endangered ancient forests and ensuring sustainable forestry! We will:
– See a NEW LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL from UVic’s Environmental Law Clinic on how to protect BC’s old-growth forests.
– See NEW MAPS for Vancouver Island and BC’s Southwest Mainland that debunk the BC Liberal government’s PR-spin
– See the ELECTION REPORT CARD on old-growth forests from the Ancient Forest Alliance
– Hear about the SWING RIDING CAMPAIGN for Sustainable Forestry and how YOU can help!
SPEAKERS will include:
– Robert Morales (Chief Treaty Negotiator, Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group)
– Calvin Sandborn (Legal Director, University of Victoria Environmental Law Clinic)
– Vicky Husband (Victoria conservationist, Order of BC and Canada recipient)
– Scott Fraser (NDP MLA for Alberni-Pacific)
– Dr. Andrew Weaver (Deputy Leader, Green Party of BC, and climate scientist)
– Arnold Bercov (President, Pulp, and Woodworkers of Canada – Local 8
– TJ Watt (Campaigner and Photographer, Ancient Forest Alliance)
– Ken Wu (Executive Director, Ancient Forest Alliance)
Background info:
Ancient forests are vital to sustain endangered species, tourism, the climate, clean water, wild salmon, and many First Nations cultures. See VIDEOS at: https://ancientforestalliance.org/photos-media/videos/ and PHOTOS at: https://ancientforestalliance.org/photos-media/
A century of unsustainable logging has eliminated the vast majority of the biggest, best old-growth trees in the valley bottoms and lower elevations that historically built BC’s forest industry. This has resulted in diminishing returns as the trees get smaller, more expensive to reach higher up, and lower in value.
As second-growth forests mature and now dominate the forested land base, the BC government has done little to stimulate investment in second-growth sawmills and value-added facilities to process the logs. Instead, they’ve allowed vast quantities to be exported raw to foreign mills in China, the US, and elsewhere.
Much of BC’s remaining old-growth forests now consist of marginal or “low-productivity” trees growing on poor sites at high elevations, on steep, rocky mountainsides, and in bogs. The BC government’s statistics deliberately overinflate the amount of remaining old-growth forests by including these stunted “bonsai” forests – mainly uneconomic to log – in their public relations figures, as well as failing to provide context on how much old-growth forests once stood.
Our remaining “productive” old-growth forests where the large trees grow, or “ancient forests”, today consist of only a small fraction of their original extent. This is particularly true on Vancouver Island, the southern mainland coast, and in the BC interior.
On Vancouver Island, 75% of the original, productive old-growth forests have been logged, including over 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow.
The history of unsustainable resource extraction around the world is replete with examples where the biggest and best stocks have been depleted one after another, resulting in the loss of resource industry jobs
along the way.
BC’s politicians must not allow this familiar pattern of high-grade resource depletion, ecosystem collapse, and the impoverishment of rural communities to continue in BC’s forests under their watch – or through
their active support. A major change in the status quo of unsustainable forestry in the province is vital. Politicians who fail to understand this fundamental concept must not have power.
By Donation.
Organized by the Ancient Forest Alliance www.AncientForestAlliance.org
For more information call 250-896-4007.
NDP forest plan ‘minor deviation from unsustainable status quo’: critic
/in News CoverageThe New Democratic Party's forestry platform released this morning is a major disappointment, said Ken Wu, the executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance environmental group.
“I'm just looking at this with rage here,” he said in an interview. “This is a minor deviation from the unsustainable status quo.”
This morning NDP leader Adrian Dix released a five point plan for forestry. It included a commitment to skills training for the industry, more emphasis on forest health, improved inventory and building markets for B.C. wood. It also talked about reducing the export of raw logs and re-instating a jobs protection commissioner.
The plan calls for $30 million in added spending on forestry in 2013-2014, building to $100 million five years from now.
“There are some aspects that are progressive, but there's not a lot of detail,” said Wu. Restricting raw log exports is positive, for example, but today's announcement didn't say how the NDP would do that, he said.
During the NDP leadership contest, Dix promised an NDP government would develop “a long-term strategy for old-growth forests,” which Wu made note of at the time.
“He has not kept his promise,” said Wu, adding the NDP could still make that commitment. “They need to do it soon. At this point I'd say the NDP just don't get it on forest conservation. They still have a chance, but this forestry platform is a flop ecologically.”
Wu said individual MLAs such as Scott Fraser in Alberni-Pacific Rim have championed the protection of old growth forests. “We need the entire NDP party to make it part of their platform to protect endangered old growth and ensure sustainable second growth forestry.”
The NDP platform says the party would take five years to double the number of seedlings planted by the government on Crown land to 50 million annually.
In a February interview, NDP forestry critic Norm Macdonald criticized the BC Liberal government for failing to meet an earlier commitment to be planting 50 million seedlings a year by 2012.
Noting at least one million hectares were already known to be not sufficiently restocked, Macdonald said, “Any competent government, and it comes down to competence, any competent government looks after its most valuable asset.”
Link to article on The Tyee website: https://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/2013/04/15/ForestStatus/
NDP’s forestry-policy plank sparks partisan ire, disappoints ecologists
/in News CoveragePRINCE GEORGE – New Democrat Leader Adrian Dix has released a multimillion dollar election plan that he believes will help grow and improve B.C.'s forest industry, but critics say the proposal makes promises that will be hard to keep.
In Prince George Monday, Dix announced the five-point forestry plan that would see $310 million invested in the industry over five years if his party wins the election in May.
The NDP leader announced his government would invest in skills training, to improve forest health, to expand global markets for B.C. lumber and to cut raw log exports, while it reinstates a jobs protection commissioner.
“Skills training is really the principle focus of our economic plan, to ensure young people have the skills they need for the jobs of the future,'' Dix said.
The B.C. Liberal Party immediately criticized the plan, saying it lacks policy details.
“After months of delay, I think British Columbians were expecting more,'' said Forest Minister Steve Thomson in a news release.
George Hoberg, a forest policy expert at the University of British Columbia, said Dix's promise to reduce raw log exports will be hard to keep.
“Raw logs are always something that politicians talk about, but it's actually very hard to deliver in terms of either policy or real change in the industry,'' Hoberg said.
“Our comparative advantage is in raw resource material or in commodities, not in more labour-intensive value-added production,''
he said.
The NDP's commitment to improve forest health includes an emphasis on increasing the province's research capacity, updating forest inventories and doubling the number of seedlings planted annually.
Hoberg said he is impressed with the plan's focus on forest health.
“The biggest challenge that we face in forestry is renewing the forest that has been disseminated by the mountain pine beetle and the Liberals have not been particularly effective at investing resources on that,'' Hoberg said.
“The one big change that we will likely see, if the NDP is elected, is a greater commitment to government funding of inventory and silviculture,'' he said.
Hoberg was surprised at the lack of discussion of environmental issues in the NDP plan – something he said the Liberal forestry plan also lacks.
Ken Wu at the Ancient Forest Alliance called the plan “a big disappointment ecologically.''
“It essentially continues the unsustainable status quo of old growth liquidation and over cutting which has led to the collapse of ecosystems and communities,'' Wu said.
Dix campaigned for party leadership with a promise to address old growth deforestation, but he now appears to be reneging on his commitment, Wu said.
“We are hoping that the party will move forward with additional policy commitments in the lead up to the election so that Dix fulfills his promise to develop a provincial old growth plan which was his 2011 leadership bid promise,'' Wu said.
Dix said the plan was developed in consultation with forest industry businesses, union leaders and with communities.
Some of the suggestions are in line with a 2011 report created by the B.C. Government and Service Employees Union, which suggests tightening raw log exports and increasing staff levels within the B.C. forest service.
A spokesperson from the Council of Forest Industries, which represents over a dozen forest companies in the province, wasn't available for comment.
Globe and Mail online article: www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/ndps-forestry-policy-plank-sparks-partisan-ire-disappoints-ecologists/article11253131/
AFA’s Old-Growth Forestry “Report Card” for the BC Liberals, NDP, Greens, and Conservatives
/in AnnouncementsApril 15, 2013
Old-Growth Forestry “Report Card” for the BC Liberals, NDP, Greens, and Conservatives
The following is a summary on the positions of BC’s main political parties on old-growth related forest policies and some additional forest policies. The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on BC’s political parties to commit to a science-based “Old-Growth Protection Act” with targets and timelines to end old-growth logging in endangered regions and to ensure a sustainable, value-added second-growth forest industry instead.
BC LIBERAL PARTY
The BC Liberal Party has a long anti-environmental record in regards to the management of old-growth forests and forestry jobs in most of BC.
The BC Liberal government in general has supported and defended the large scale liquidation of old-growth forests across most of BC, deregulated numerous forestry laws that protected the environment and jobs, facilitated the massive expansion of raw log exports to foreign mills, and oversaw the net demise of over 30,000 BC forestry jobs and the closure of over 70 mills in BC.
Some policies and positions they’ve undertaken:
BC NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY (NDP)
The NDP released its forestry platform today which makes no mention of old-growth protection, the environment, or sustainability. See: www.bcndp.ca/files/BG-BCNDP-130415_-_Forestry.pdf
NDP Leader Adrian Dix, during his 2011 campaign to become party leader, promised to: “Develop a long term strategy for old growth forests in the province, including protection of specific areas that are facing immediate logging plans.” (see point #4 in “Ecosystem Management”) [Original article no longer available]
Several individual NDP MLA’s have championed protecting specific old-growth forests while in Opposition, but at this time Dix and the NDP party as a whole have not followed up, developed any specifics, re-mentioned, or even officially adopted Dix’s earlier leadership promise for a province-wide old-growth plan.
On April 13, 2013, comments by the NDP’s Envirornment Critic Rob Fleming in the Times Colonist suggests the party supports scientific conservation assessments of our old-growth forests as proposed by the “Old-Growth Protection Act”. See: www.timescolonist.com/news/world/ancient-forest-alliance-calls-for-science-based-forest-plan-1.109973. This is a step forward. However, the party has not committed yet to the plan’s actual protection scheme that would end old-growth logging in endangered regions – the crux of the plan.
On raw log exports, the party has promised to “reduce” raw log exports, but no details have been given beyond “working with stakeholders”.
BC GREEN PARTY
The BC Green Party committed on April 14 to undertake a science-based old-growth plan to protect endangered old-growth forests, to recruit second-growth forests into becoming old-growth, and to increase the export tax on raw logs to support value-added manufacturing in BC. See: www.andrewjweaver.ca/bc_green_party_forestry_action_plan
The party is also calling for a reduction in the overcutting of second-growth forests and phase-out of clearcutting. See: www.greenparty.bc.ca/forestry
BC CONSERVATIVE PARTY:
The BC Conservatives have no mention in their platform or website about old-growth protection, sustainable forestry, or anything environment-related to forestry, and as such we assume at this time that they support the status quo of large scale old-growth liquidation and raw log exports.
In fact, about the only thing mention of forestry in their platform is a statement that “the BC Liberals have shown little enthusiasm for the development of British Columbia’s abundant natural resources.”
NEW Old-Growth Protection Act! SEND a MESSAGE to the NDP-Government-in-Waiting
/in Take Action**Please FORWARD far and wide!**ACTION ALERT! April 14, 2013
Proposed BC “Old-Growth Protection Act”
LETTERS NEEDED NOW to the NDP Government-in-Waiting!
There are only TWO days left until the official 28 day campaign period begins (ie. when the “writ drops”) in the lead-up to the May 14 BC Election.
NOW is the MOST important time for YOU to SPEAK UP for our Ancient Forests and Sustainable Forestry Jobs!
A proposed BC “Old-Growth Protection Act” has just been released by the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria. The science-based plan would incorporate timelines to immediately end or quickly phase-out old-growth logging in endangered regions of BC. See more info on the proposed act at:
CTV News Clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb09Z0-4rmE
Media Release: https://ancientforestalliance.org/old-growth-protection-act-needed-to-preserve-bcs-natural-heritage/
The BC Liberals are in all likelihood going to lose power in May. This is a necessity, given their long, unapologetic, anti-environmental history of large-scale old-growth forest liquidation, massive overcutting, environmental deregulation, and overseeing the demise of tens of thousands of BC forestry jobs while tens of millions of raw logs were exported to foreign mills. It’s important to remember this while at the ballot box on May 14.
Now, with an NDP government in all likelihood about to take power, we are asking that the NDP COMMIT to the key tenets of the proposed Old-Growth Protection Act and to not continue the disastrous, unsustainable status quo in BC’s forests. [SEE “Where Do the Parties Currently Stand” down BELOW]
**** PLEASE take just a couple MINUTES to WRITE a QUICK EMAIL to the NDP! ****
Let BC NDP Leader Adrian Dix (adrian.dix@bcndp.ca), NDP Forestry Critic Norm MacDonald (norm.macdonald.mla@leg.bc.ca), NDP Environment Critic Rob Fleming (rob.fleming@bcndp.ca), and your own NDP Candidate (find at: https://www.bcndp.ca/team) know that you expect them to:
* Be sure to include your full mailing address so they know which riding you live in and that you’re a real person.
* Be sure to let them know if you are a member of the NDP party!!
*** NOTE: In addition, you can SEND a MESSAGE (but also please write your own email, above, which is most effective) to the BC NDP and also Premier Christy Clark through our website: www.BCForestMovement.com (IMPORTANT: If you’ve used this website before, note that it sends a DIFFERENT message now with important changes, and YES, you can and should send this NEW message).
**********************************************
WHERE DO THE PARTIES CURRENTLY STAND on OLD-GROWTH PROTECTION?
The BC Liberals have not changed their unscientific, anti-environmental stance that old-growth forests are not endangered and that they’ve managed them well. They will likely lose power, and deserve to, unless they radically change their stance.
The BC Green Party recently committed to the key parts of the Old-Growth Protection Act. See: [Original article no longer available]
The NDP seem to support scientific conservation assessments for our old-growth forests, as indicated by yesterday’s comments of the NDP’s Environment Critic Rob Fleming about the Old-Growth Protection Act (see: www.timescolonist.com/news/world/ancient-forest-alliance-calls-for-science-based-forest-plan-1.109973). This is a recent step forward. However, they have not committed yet to the plan’s actual protection scheme that would end old-growth logging in endangered regions – this is the central part of the plan.
In mid-March, a Global TV piece aired about old-growth forests and the NDP’s forestry platform. Nowhere was old-growth protection mentioned as being part of the NDP’s forest policies (rather, their main policy was to “plant more trees”) and the Council Of Forest Industry (COFI) president commented that there was nothing of concern to the timber companies with the NDP’s forest policies. Let’s hope the party’s forest policies have evolved since! See: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOz232HDx3Y
NDP Leader Adrian Dix, during his 2011 campaign to become party leader, promised to: “Develop a long term strategy for old growth forests in the Province, including protection of specific areas that are facing immediate logging plans.” While several NDP MLA’s have championed protecting specific old-growth forests while in Opposition, at this time Dix and the NDP party as a whole have not followed up, developed any specifics, re-mentioned, or even officially adopted Dix’s earlier leadership promise for a province-wide old-growth plan. DIX MUST BE MADE to KEEP HIS PROMISE. See Dix’s 2011 promise (#4 Ecosystem Management) at: [Original article no longer available]
See the Ancient Forest Alliance’s new Youtube Clip on Saving BC’s Endangered Forests and Forestry Jobs at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6YTizBF-jE
Authorized by the Ancient Forest Alliance, registered sponsor under the Election Act
Ancient Forest, Alliance, Victoria Main PO, PO Box 8459, Victoria, BC, V8W 3S1 Canada
Ancient Forest Alliance calls for science-based forest plan
/in News Coverage*Note: The Green Party has adopted the key recommendations of the Environmental Law Clinic’s proposed Old-Growth Protection Act. It appears that the NDP support the scientific assessment component of the proposal, however they have not yet committed to the calls for protection and fully ending old-growth logging in endangered regions.
______________
Up-to-date science and legislation without massive loopholes is needed to protect B.C.’s remaining old-growth forests, says the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Clinic.
The proposed Old-Growth Protection Act was produced by the clinic at the request of the Ancient Forest Alliance. The group’s executive director, Ken Wu, hopes it will spur the government to action.
“It’s time for a new, science-based plan,” he said.
An industry transition to second-growth trees is inevitable as the last unprotected old-growth stands are logged, Wu said.
“We simply want the B.C. government to ensure the transition is completed sooner, while these ancient forests still stand.”
The proposal, which is similar to a plan released Friday by the Green Party of B.C., is based on immediately stopping old-growth logging in critically endangered forests and phasing out old-growth logging where there’s a high risk to biodiversity and the ecosystem.
Major elements of the plan include appointing a science panel to carry out inventories and forest risk assessments, establishing different harvest rates for old-growth and second-growth, and legally designating old-growth reserves so there are consistent, enforceable rules.
Calvin Sandborn, the clinic’s legal director, said the plan is practical, science-based and politically doable.
“We wanted something that would fix the flaws in the current system, and the flaws are numerous,” he said.
Protection now offered by old-growth management areas is limited, Sandborn said.
Boundaries are adjusted to move protected areas away from valuable old-growth stands, logging is conducted under the guise of protecting forest health, small, stunted old-growth trees are protected, rather than big stands, and areas protected under forest rules can still be harvested by the oil and gas industry, Sandborn said.
If science and current mapping were used to establish which areas should be protected, much of the political heat would disappear, especially as protecting ancient trees produces more jobs over the long term than cutting them down, he said.
“These trees are our equivalent of the ancient cathedrals of Europe,” he said.
Forests Minister Steve Thomson could not be reached Friday.
NDP environment critic Rob Fleming said the proposed legislation “speaks to the urgency of the issue.”
“The idea of a science panel to assess the inventory of old growth on the Island is a good one, and I think it’s supportable,” he said. “It echoes an earlier call from the Forest Practices Board.”
The Green party is also calling for more science-based assessments and a provincial inventory of remaining old-growth forests.
“Given the scarcity of remaining productive old growth in much of our province, it is clear that we need to head in a new science-based direction to manage our forests,” said Green leader Jane Sterk.
The party also wants to see incentives for companies to retool mills so they can handle second-growth trees, and emergency protection for endangered ecosystems, such as the eastern Vancouver Island coastal Douglas fir zone.
Comment: 1993’s Clayoquot Summer was a game-changer
/in News CoverageTwenty years ago today, about 30 residents of Tofino were driving up and down the highway by Long Beach, communicating via handheld radios, tracking a helicopter carrying B.C.’s premier of the day and select media.
A local guy listening in on emergency, aviation and boat communications was transmitting the play-by-play, while the helicopter sought a quiet landing spot where the premier could make a “contained” statement about the fate of Clayoquot Sound’s forests.
Nothing that followed, however, in what was to become the Clayoquot Summer of 1993, could be construed as “contained.”
The Clayoquot land-use decision of April 13, 1993, sparked a mass protest that put Clayoquot Sound’s ancient temperate rainforests on the international map. Over a period of six months, the region became an icon for an environmental awakening.
Clayoquot symbolized all that was wrong with industrial logging and was a touchstone for people’s hope for change. It shook the province, inspired people to action and hatched a marketplace-oriented strategy that has been utilized in environmental campaigns from the farthest corner of Vancouver Island to the Great Bear Rainforest to Indonesia, the Amazon and beyond.
The conflict, in fact, began in the previous decade with a group of volunteers from the Friends of Clayoquot Sound and First Nations leaders who rose to protect their traditional territories. Reaction to the 1993 Clayoquot decision transformed the local conflict into a movement with reverberations to this day.
Clayoquot Summer ’93 was triggered because the decision left two-thirds of the region, including many intact rainforest valleys, open to industrial logging. Public outrage about this decision funnelled into the largest act of non-violent civil disobedience in Canadian history, culminating in the arrest of 856 of the 12,000-plus protesters, who were tried in mass trials and jailed.
By October 1993, when the protests wrapped up, it had spilled into years known as the “War in the Woods.” Environmental groups targeted corporate customers of B.C. wood and paper products around the world, causing the province grief and the industry millions in lumber and paper sales.
In response to the non-violent but highly energized uprising, the political ground in B.C. shifted. Clayoquot marked a renaissance in First Nations land-rights discussions, and environmental groups became powerful intermediaries, both in the wood-supply chain and in the political discourse. Importantly, the public became defiant over what they saw to be legal but wrong — the destruction of the environment — and began to stir.
Out of the controversy, the First Nations in Clayoquot Sound, who hadn’t been consulted on the land-use plan, were chosen to be first in the province’s new treaty process, and a groundbreaking pre-treaty agreement was signed.
By August, then-premier Mike Harcourt established the Clayoquot Sound Scientific Panel for Sustainable Forest Practices. The outcry against wanton clearcut logging broke through barriers, sparking the province to initiate B.C.’s first forest-practices code. The logging industry circled its wagons in an attempt to defend its tarnished reputation in the marketplace, but change was apace.
The fight for Clayoquot was a polarizing issue. Wedges were driven between communities as we grappled with the biggest issues of our day with nowhere but the public forum to play them out. And yet, we all crept, agonizingly, toward breakthroughs that British Columbians can be proud of.
What happened in Clayoquot Sound, beginning in April 1993, has had a major influence on global environmental movements, the Great Bear Rainforest campaign and even the oilsands and pipeline campaigns of today — as well as on conservation of Clayoquot’s forests.
It has been 20 years. Just over half of Clayoquot’s rainforests are now off-limits to logging. But many of the region’s intact rainforest valleys are still unprotected, and the region’s First Nations communities still struggle economically.
As the anniversaries of the Clayoquot Sound land-use decision and subsequent uprising of the Summer of ’93 are marked, we see new opportunities for conservation and human well-being growing again in Clayoquot Sound. A lasting solution may soon be at hand that honours the movements for environmental and social justice begun those 20 years ago, in the magnificent, inspiring place that is Clayoquot Sound.
There are many more stories to tell about those times. There are more in the making there now.
Valerie Langer is with ForestEthics Solutions. Eduardo Sousa is with Greenpeace. Maryjka Mychajlowycz is a member of Friends of Clayoquot Sound. Torrance Coste is a campaigner for the Wilderness Committee.
CTV – Environmental Law Centre Proposes BC Old-Growth Act
/in News CoverageCTV News – The Environmental Law Centre of the University of Victoria is proposing a science-based Old Growth Protection Act for British Columbia with timelines to immediately protect critically endangered old-growth forests and to quickly phase out old growth logging in highly endangered forests. Direct Link to video: https://youtu.be/wb09Z0-4rmE
See the full press release and report here: www.ancientforestalliance.org/news-item.php?ID=624
Old Growth Protection Proposal by the Environmental Law Centre of the University of Victoria
/in Media ReleaseThe UVic Environmental Law Centre is proposing a science-based Old Growth Protection Act for British Columbia with timelines to immediately protect critically endangered old-growth forests and to quickly phase out old-growth logging in highly endangered forests.
See the details of the report.
Here’s a link to the Environmental Law Centre’s website.
“Old Growth Protection Act” needed to preserve BC’s Natural Heritage
/in Media ReleaseA legislative proposal for an “Old Growth Protection Act” by the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre (ELC) would ensure better protection for BC’s ancient forest heritage if adopted by the provincial government. The science-based plan would incorporate timelines to immediately end old-growth logging in “critically endangered” forests, and quickly phase out old-growth logging where there is a “high risk” to biological diversity and ecosystem integrity.
Specifically, the Old Growth Protection Act would require:
“The Forest Practices Board has pointed out some of these problems in the past,” stated Calvin Sandborn, legal director of the UVic Environmental Law Centre. “The Ancient Forest Alliance asked us what could be done to address known deficiencies in old-growth protection laws. While some legal mechanisms are available today under various statutes, we feel there is a need for new legislation and planning that is based on science, governed by timelines, and plugs existing loopholes or inconsistencies.”
Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance executive director stated: “Considering that the timber industry has logged the vast majority of the biggest, best old-growth stands in the lowlands, driving several species towards extinction in this province, it’s time for a new science-based plan that protects our endangered old-growth forests as the timber industry continues its second-growth transition. A complete transition to a second-growth forest industry is inevitable when the last of the unprotected old-growth stands are logged. We simply want the BC government to ensure the transition is completed sooner, while these ancient forests still stand, instead of after they’re all logged outside the limited and often tenuous protections that exist.”
The ELC Report may be viewed at this link: https://elc.uvic.ca/2013-oldgrowthprotectionact/
Ancient Forest Alliance Media Backgrounder
The proposed Old Growth Protection Act would resolve the inadequacies of BC’s current old-growth management system, which include:
– Insufficient protection levels, as is evident from the decline of old-growth dependent species like the spotted owl (only 10 individuals left in BC’s wilds), mountain caribou (40% decline since the 1990’s, from 2500 animals in 1995 to 1500 today), and marbled murrelet (considered to be declining by the BC Conservation Data Center).
– An insufficient scientific basis in establishing old-growth protection target levels and site selection, currently skewed towards minimizing timber supply impacts in the richest stands.
– A failure to distinguish between marginal versus productive old-growth stands, thus allowing non-commercial stands of stunted, small old-growth trees to be substituted in the place of protecting the stands with large trees and greatest biodiversity.
– A failure to distinguish between old-growth and second-growth harvest levels in the Allowable Annual Cut, thus allowing companies to “chase value” by high-grading the highest value old-growth stands first.
– Insufficient firmness in protection standards due to loopholes that allow theoretically protected old-growth forests to be destroyed. These loopholes include an ability to move old-growth protections away from higher value stands into lower value stands, to log under the guise of maintaining forest health, and a lack of protection against mining, oil and gas development, and hydro projects that also destroy forests.
The plan would exclude the Central and North Coast (ie. the Great Bear Rainforest) and Haida Gwaii, where comprehensive old-growth protections and more advanced, science-based land use planning processes are already underway and have partly been implemented.
In areas where the remaining old-growth forests are below targeted protection levels, second-growth forests must also be allowed to age to become old-growth forests again. The establishment of “recruitment reserves” for this purpose as well as the reduction of the second-growth AAC (allowable second-growth cut) will be necessary in endangered regions.
BC’s old-growth forests sustain endangered species, the climate, tourism, clean water, wild salmon, and many First Nations cultures.
Most old-growth forests have been logged in southern BC, ranging from 65% to 99% logged in various regions. Valley bottoms and low elevation ecosystems where the largest trees grow and most biodiversity lives have been particularly hard hit. BC government statistics regularly inflate the amount of remaining old-growth forests by including vast tracts of low productivity “bonsai” forests of small, stunted trees growing at high elevations, on steep rocky mountainsides and in bogs of little to no commercial timber value and that are generally lower conservation priorities, while failing to providing a context on how much productive old-growth forests once stood.
See photos of BC’s old-growth forests at: https://ancientforestalliance.org/photos-media/
See a new YouTube campaign video of BC’s old-growth forests at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6YTizBF-jE
Authorized by the Ancient Forest Alliance, registered sponsor under the Election Act
Ancient Forest, Alliance, Victoria Main PO, PO Box 8459, Victoria, BC, V8W 3S1 Canada
Pre-Election Info Night and Rally for Ancient Forests this Wednesday April 10th
/in AnnouncementsHello AFA Supporters!
Looking forward to seeing you all at the upcoming AFA event!
SAVE our ANCIENT FORESTS and BC FORESTRY JOBS! Pre-Election RALLY and INFO NIGHT!
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
7-9 pm
Alix Goolden Hall, 907 Pandora Ave. (by Quadra St), Victoria
Facebook event page (invite friends!)
YOUR ATTENDANCE is needed to SEND A STRONG MESSAGE to BC’s politicians one month before the BC election that it’s their MORAL OBLIGATION to commit to saving our endangered ancient forests and ensuring sustainable forestry! We will:
– See a NEW LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL from UVic’s Environmental Law Clinic on how to protect BC’s old-growth forests.
– See NEW MAPS for Vancouver Island and BC’s Southwest Mainland that debunk the BC Liberal government’s PR-spin
– See the ELECTION REPORT CARD on old-growth forests from the Ancient Forest Alliance
– Hear about the SWING RIDING CAMPAIGN for Sustainable Forestry and how YOU can help!
SPEAKERS will include:
– Robert Morales (Chief Treaty Negotiator, Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group)
– Calvin Sandborn (Legal Director, University of Victoria Environmental Law Clinic)
– Vicky Husband (Victoria conservationist, Order of BC and Canada recipient)
– Scott Fraser (NDP MLA for Alberni-Pacific)
– Dr. Andrew Weaver (Deputy Leader, Green Party of BC, and climate scientist)
– Arnold Bercov (President, Pulp, and Woodworkers of Canada – Local 8
– TJ Watt (Campaigner and Photographer, Ancient Forest Alliance)
– Ken Wu (Executive Director, Ancient Forest Alliance)
Background info:
Ancient forests are vital to sustain endangered species, tourism, the climate, clean water, wild salmon, and many First Nations cultures. See VIDEOS at: https://ancientforestalliance.org/photos-media/videos/ and PHOTOS at: https://ancientforestalliance.org/photos-media/
A century of unsustainable logging has eliminated the vast majority of the biggest, best old-growth trees in the valley bottoms and lower elevations that historically built BC’s forest industry. This has resulted in diminishing returns as the trees get smaller, more expensive to reach higher up, and lower in value.
As second-growth forests mature and now dominate the forested land base, the BC government has done little to stimulate investment in second-growth sawmills and value-added facilities to process the logs. Instead, they’ve allowed vast quantities to be exported raw to foreign mills in China, the US, and elsewhere.
Much of BC’s remaining old-growth forests now consist of marginal or “low-productivity” trees growing on poor sites at high elevations, on steep, rocky mountainsides, and in bogs. The BC government’s statistics deliberately overinflate the amount of remaining old-growth forests by including these stunted “bonsai” forests – mainly uneconomic to log – in their public relations figures, as well as failing to provide context on how much old-growth forests once stood.
Our remaining “productive” old-growth forests where the large trees grow, or “ancient forests”, today consist of only a small fraction of their original extent. This is particularly true on Vancouver Island, the southern mainland coast, and in the BC interior.
On Vancouver Island, 75% of the original, productive old-growth forests have been logged, including over 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow.
The history of unsustainable resource extraction around the world is replete with examples where the biggest and best stocks have been depleted one after another, resulting in the loss of resource industry jobs
along the way.
BC’s politicians must not allow this familiar pattern of high-grade resource depletion, ecosystem collapse, and the impoverishment of rural communities to continue in BC’s forests under their watch – or through
their active support. A major change in the status quo of unsustainable forestry in the province is vital. Politicians who fail to understand this fundamental concept must not have power.
By Donation.
Organized by the Ancient Forest Alliance www.AncientForestAlliance.org
For more information call 250-896-4007.